Ян Френкель - Журавли

 

CRANES BUSHLEN ЖУРАВЛИ 

Music - Yan Frenkel. Lyrics - R. Gamzatov Translation to Russian - Naum Grebnev 

Translation to Yiddish - A. Vergelis The poem was originally written in Gamzatov's native Avar language, with many versions surrounding the initial wording. Its famous 1968 Russian translation was soon made by the prominent Russian poet and translator Naum Grebnev, and was turned into a song in 1969, becoming one of the best known Russian-language World War II ballads all over the world. Translation by American poet ©Leo Schwartzberg 2018 

Sometimes I feel that all those fallen soldiers, Who never left the bloody battle zones, 

Have not been buried to decay and molder, But turned into white cranes that softly groan. 

And thus, until these days since those bygone times, They still fly in the skies and gently cry. 

Isn’t it why we often hear those bell chimes And calmly freeze while looking in the sky? 

A tired flock of cranes still flies - their wings flap. Birds glide into the twilight, roaming free. 

In their formation I can see a small gap – 

It might be so, that space is meant for me. The day shall come, when in a mist of ashen I’ll soar with cranes, and final rest I’ll find, 

From the skies calling – in a bird-like fashion – All those of you who I’ll have left behind

Yan Frenkel was a Russian Soviet composer born in Kiev, Soviet Union. He was originally taught violin by his father, and later studied classical violin at the Kiev Conservatory under Yakob Magaziner [ru], and the piano. During the Second World War he was evacuated to Orenburg, where he entered at the Orenburg Antiaircraft Military School (Zenitnoe Uchilishche), and played the violin in the orchestra of the Avrora Cinema. In 1942 he served at the front lines and was wounded. After the hospital, since 1943 played in the military orchestra.^[2] или в 1918/1919 году^[3] After the war, since 1946 he lived in Moscow, where he wrote orchestral arrangements and played the violin in small orchestras.

He began composing songs in the 1960s. His first was the song Gody ('The Years'), written to lyrics by Mark Lisianski. During his later career he worked in collaboration with many prominent Soviet musicians, including Mikhail Tanich, Igor Shaferan, and the husband and wife team Konstantin Vanshenkin and Inna Goff [ru]]. Thanks to Mark Bernes his song Zhuravli ('The Cranes', lyrics by Rasul Gamzatov) became a major hit. Frenkel gave concerts in which he performed his own music. During these concerts the audience would generally join in. His songs were included in the repertoire of many Soviet performers. He also appeared in the movie The Elusive Avengers, for which he composed a score.

Yan Frenkel died on August 25, 1989, in Riga (as foreshadowed in his song Avgust ('August') to the lyrics of Inna Goff). His wife Natalia died in the mid-1990s, but his daughter Nina has lived in Italy since the 1980s. His grandson Ian Frenkel is a musician (pianist and arranger) in the United States Coast Guard Band.